The Car Crash
by SarahhHarkness-Jones
Summary: There is always a cause when there's a car crash, and despite what is said, Jack will always feel responsible. Warning: Character deaths.


**Title: The Car Crash  
****Spoilers: Zilcho, but post-Cyberwoman (like almost everything I write)  
****Prompt: Car crash  
****Copyright: I do not own Torchwood, Captain Jack Harkness or Ianto Jones, even if I believe in my head that I do.**

_"You're going to crash one day Jack."__  
_  
Ianto's, and the rest of his Torchwood team's words rang through his mind as he made his way through the cemetery, the pain in his chest ever growing, but not due to any injury he had gained. Jack couldn't believe that he was doing this once again, he had hoped that this time would be different. It never got any easier, this walk never became any less painful for the Captain.

_"Someone will get hurt, but you, you'll be fine because you're immortal."_

He should have listened to them all, he thought grimly as he stared down at the flowers he held in his hand. He remembered every moment of it, even weeks later. The looks upon their faces as the car turned upside down, the panic and fear that was rapidly growing inside of him when he saw the first sight of blood. The screams. The cries. The gasps for breath. He remembered it all.

_"You can't go on being so reckless Jack, not all of us are going to live forever you know._"

He was the one to ring the ambulance, none of his team were in any fit state to do so. All three emergency services took too long to arrive at the scene, when they finally did, it was already too late. Jack cursed the drivers of the vehicles many times afterwards, fully believing that if they had gotten there early then the outcome would be much different. Maybe he wouldn't be walking down this path alone.

_"One day, one of us is going to get killed, and damn if it is me I am coming back to haunt your ass."_

Jack hadn't died that night, if it wasn't for the airbag that saved him, he would have though. His body was littered with numerous cuts and bruises, which later would heal at an amazingly fast rate. He had to climb out the front windscreen, dragging Gwen who was still conscious and only scratched up with a broken leg, behind him. He had placed her, completely hysterical and screaming for the other members of their team out on the grass. Far away from the car and the wreckage that had been caused.  
_  
__"There are speed limits for a reason, they save lives."_

The accident wasn't Jack's fault, not at all. He was going the speed limit, maybe just a couple of miles over. Ironically, it was the day that Jack was driving safely, that the team ended up in a crash. It was another car driving erratically in the opposite direction, down the wrong side of the road that had caused it. They were going too fast, Jack had to swerve out the way in order to avoid it. Sometimes he believes a head on collision would have been a better fate for the team.  
_  
__"This isn't the 51st Century, I'm sure in your time you have super doctors that can heal everything, but not here."_

Jack continued to walk down the Cemetery path, the bouquet of flowers held tightly in his hand. The wind was picking up, blowing the black suit jacket he was wearing behind him.

"Whatcha thinking about?"

Ianto, the wonderful Welshman. The wonderful, gorgeous Welshman who always had tricks up his sleeve, and never failed to surprise Jack.

"You" Jack smiled, the memory of that night flooding back into his mind.

He had held the Welshman in his arms, his lover, employee and friend. He held him until his eyes were closed, and he was at rest. Then, after holding his dead lover in his arms for what felt like forever, Jack heard it. That gasping of breath that the immortal knew only too well, and as Ianto clung onto Jack's shirt for dear life, the Captain could not believe his eyes.

Ianto had died, he knew that for a fact. He had checked, several times not initially believing that his young lover was gone. Ianto was dead. But instead of being a motionless corpse lying in the Captain's arms, there he was, gasping for breath and clutching onto his lover strongly.

"Oh please, you'll make me blush" Ianto teased, falling into step with the older American, and taking his hand into his. In his other hand were a bunch of flowers, exactly the same as Jack's.

"What took you so long?" Jack asked, squeezing his lovers hand and sending him a tiny sad smile.

After Ianto had settled down and was now breathing properly, the ambulances had arrived, wheeling off the other members of the team, and a paramedic went over to check on the two men. They had agreed they would follow the ambulance to the hospital in a friend's car, who was just arriving to pick them up. That of course, was not true. Jack was an immortal man, and Ianto had just come back from being dead, who knows what kind of things would be found if tests were done on these two men. They would sort the police out later, telling them it was a Torchwood issue that was to never be investigated into.

Jack and Ianto made their way home, to Ianto's tiny apartment that they now both shared. The crash had happened only a ten minute walk from their block of apartments, and when Jack unlocked the door, after walking home in silence, the eruption of questions and shouting had occurred.

Obviously, no one had any idea what had happened. Ianto insisted that Jack shoot him, so he could see if he really was immortal. How they had got to that point Jack did not know. Of course, he had refused. How could he shoot the man he loved? Even if there was a possibility that Ianto was immortal, the thought of killing him, because that is what it was, whether he came back to life or not it was still murder, made Jack sick to the bone.

They didn't question why it had happened to Ianto, and Jack most definitely was not going to test whether or not Ianto really was immortal like him. They vowed to continue their lives as they had before, Jack keeping a watchful eye on his younger lover to check that he was always okay.

"I was just thinking, that's all" The Welshman sighed as they reached the headstones they had come here for. "I should be here, next to them" he muttered, placing the flowers in front of the first headstone, with Jack following his lead and placing his flowers in front of the second headstone.

_'Here lies Toshiko Sato, beloved daughter and friend. Gone but not forgotten'_

"No, you shouldn't" Jack shook his head and he pulled Ianto into his chest, wrapping his arms around the Welshman as he began to cry. The past few weeks were finally catching up to him, causing him to break down for the first time since the incident. He didn't like the Captain to see him so weak, and with Jack now watching him almost every hour of the day, he never had the chance to properly grieve. Even at the funeral Ianto kept himself busy, just so that he wouldn't break down in front of the room full of people.

_'Owen Harper, forever in our hearts. Taken from us too early'_

"I love you Jack" Ianto mumbled behind sobs, as he clung onto the Americans jacket.

"I love you too Ianto"

"Tosh, Owen we love you too" Ianto sighed lightly as he pulled away from the Captain, wiping his eyes on the sleeve of his jacket.

Jack knew that they would get through this together, the memory of their lost friends would never leave them, but they had a job to do. After all, they now had forever together, and Rift Alerts definitely wouldn't wait for them.

_**fin **_


End file.
